Finances

The Goodwill Outlet – 30lbs of clothing in 4 hours

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Today, I spent 4 hours at the bins and brought home 30lbs of clothing. I’m trying hard to find more within a short amount of time, but this seems to be average for me. I know I’m slow. I’m still looking things up on my phone. Some items I know will sell, but for some brands, I forget. That could be what’s slowing me down.

My typical schedule at the bins is source for 1.5 hours and then start sorting for rejects. I get there at opening so that I will get a cart – they are gone within hours by those who take 4 or 5. I’m usually mentally done by noon.

My “peave” for today: A lady was next to me busy picking clothes out of the bins. She kept moving toward me as if I wasn’t there and finally got right in front of me looking for and pulling clothes right from me, clearly crossing a boundary. Yes, it’s dog eat dog world at the bins, but most people are a little more respectful.

One of my finds from another visit:

A Floppy Seat Cover. My bins charge $.99/lb, so I got this for about $3 and sold it for $15+ shipping.

Homeschooling & Working from Home as a Single Mom

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My heart’s desire is to continue to homeschool my three children even though I am now a single mom of three kids. Two are in elementary and one in PreK.

I’m not sure how I will be able to support myself, but I’m going to try. I know there are plenty of single moms and dads who make it work.

At first I thought I had to “settle” for a 8-5 job. I wasn’t sure how that would work since I haven’t worked in 15 years. However, I realized my desire is to stay home with my kids as much as I can. I want a flexible schedule to be there for them for whatever is going on. I also don’t want them in day care or before/after school care. I know how it feels to have both parents working outside the home. My parents weren’t available during the day for me.

As I started Googling “working from home” online, I came across the idea of selling on Amazon through their FBA program. It reasonated with me. I learned all I could about it and started about a year ago. Selling online is not new to me. I sold heavily in eBay before I had my first child 9 years ago. Because of this, I learned quickly.

My first summer, coincided with the first summer where my kids would be at their dad’s for 2 days at a time. I worked long hours going to thrift stores to find books to sell. Books are cheap and require less capital than other things. I used this time to experiment with selling.

Once school began, I struggled balancing it all. I hate to be working when my kids aret available, so I probably did less than I should or could have.

Over a year’s time, I have built my business to a point where there’s no turning back mentally. I can’t fathom doing anything else.

My business has grown, but not to a point where I can live off of what I make. I’ve made some adjustments and have started eBay on the side. Selling on eBay can give me a quick turn around of capital since capital has been a big issue. My capital is usually tied up in unsold inventory at Amazon. I don’t always have the money to buy more inventory to sell. eBay has helped a lot.

I look forward to seeing how much more my business will grow in the next year. I know more than I did and can use that to my advantage.

7 Things I’ve Noticed while Thrift Store Shopping

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7 things I've learnd shopping thrift stores

Since my financial situation has changed, I’ve been frequenting thrift stores. As a newbie, I’ve noticed a few things:

  1. Every thrift store has a different pricing structure. Some thrift stores charged higher prices than others. Each store will price things like books and clothes differently. Just because you bought a pot for $2 at one store, doesn’t mean that you’ll find it for that same price at others.
  2. Things are not necessarily cheaper at a thrift store. I ran into a few high prices where I could almost get the same item brand new for the same price.
  3. Some stores have a dressing room, some do not.
  4. Some stores do not accept credit cards. I found the large chains like Arc and Goodwill do accept credit cards while some of the smaller stores did not. I would say that a majority do accept cards. Just prepared for that one or two that do not.
  5. Items are color coded and on certain days of the week, a certain color may be half off.
  6. In stores where the price is not listed on the item (like books), double check what your cashier charges you. I had some childrens books that were supposed to be $.50 each, but the cashier charged me the adult book price of $1.00. I didn’t catch it in time.
  7. You can find some really good cheap treasures if you are there at the right time. It’s amazing what people give away!

My Monthly Coupon Savings for Jan, Feb, March

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monthly coupon savings

For January  I saved $31.73 by using coupons.

For February, I saved $12.99 .

For March – $21.65

YTD Total: $66.37

Where do I get coupons?

  1. From the Sunday paper. My town has a free option where they deliver just the coupons along with a few ads (not all).
  2. From Swagbucks – When you print online coupons from them, you get 10 points per coupon. The points can then be redeemed for gift cards to places like Amazon.  Alot of the coupons found in the Sunday paper are also found here so it doubles my stash. It can take awhile for me to get credit for the coupons, but I don’t mind. The points are just an added benefit of using their coupons.
  3. E-coupons on Grocery Store Loyalty Cards – My King Soopers allows me to add e-coupons to their card, which are deducted when I buy those items in the store.
  4. Ibotta – an app I use on my iPhone. Ibotta has quite a few coupons that you can use in conjunction with a physical coupon. The coupon savings collect in my account until I reach a payout threshold. I consider this “extra” money and don’t them include in my monthly coupon totals.

How do I maximize my coupons?

  • I try to use my coupons at King Soopers which doubles the value up to $1.00. However, the product must already be a good price, otherwise I won’t buy it just for the sake of using a coupon.

I’ve been keeping track of how much in coupons I use per month to help me actually see their value. I plan to do a separate post with the total.

** Affiliate links are used in this post. However, I only recommend companies that I like and use.